Context:

Key Concepts:

What is God's righteousness observed doing?:

ordaining twelve specific men out of many to Jesus to preach/heal/cast out

(70 others will be ordained in similar fashion soon after)

(Such a thing appears to be temporary at this point.)

What does this tell us about God's righteousness?:

Calling and empowerment are both something given by God in HIS righteousness as opposed to being believed for or assumed. There is that which is general for all men/women and there is that which is beyond that in measure and specific for the few so ordained by Him.

God is said not to judge by the person, a respecter of persons, but judges according to HIS purposes. In this particular case HE is not only judging eleven of the twelve that would become Apostles, HE is also identifying (unbeknownst to them at this time) eleven of the twelve that would sit on eleven of the twelve thrones of the tribes of Israel in the Millennium. HE will make these men what they are to be not vi-se-versa.

That Jesus can issue this calling/empowerment to others and they are proven to have received it/performed it is substantial proof that Jesus is the vehicle of righteousness that the Father has confirmed to be Son of God and anointed Christ.

How is man reacting?:

(no information given in this passage)

(we do know that the 12 and the 70 were able to perform this successfully as ordained with one possible exception attributed to the lack of prayer on their part and fasting)

Notes:

Righteousness is not something we believe or construct or want it to be, it is detached from that, it is everything God is and does. Not only is it stated by Jesus to be such and such, it is divinely confirmed in Jesus and proven every step of His way. In the twelve it is proven that God by righteousness can make any man to become the precise man God calls him to be.

The righteousness connected and flowing between Father and Son is for the first time being transformationally experienced by the initial disciples of Jesus empowering them to do that which of their own they could not do and pointing them to do with it that which is purposed by God.

The one exception to the disciples' success in this matter may suggest a small measure of responsibility of each to properly maintain their personal connection to His righteousness via prayer and fasting. We are not told which pair of two failed at this, thus we are all warned to be diligent towards this.

Key Messages:

What does this say about our present condition?

Men/Women go about making themselves to be only what they themselves can personally obtain to be, which for all that they can potentially be falls short of what God can better make them (has designed them) to be. We are called to a glory and virtue beyond that of our own making; His glory and virtue.